Disc Dem

Wednesday, 29 June 2016

In Search of Democracy

The outcome of
the Brexit vote has been trumpeted as “a victory for democracy”, but a look at
the UK referendum voting numbers gives pause for thought on what democracy really
means in today’s world.

Needing 50%
plus 1 vote for victory, the Bremain camp received 48.1% of the votes cast, and
the Brexit camp received 51.9%. For the convenience of our generally
abbreviated world, these have been rounded to 48% and 52% respectively.

A close call, but
nonetheless enough to constitute a clear statement by the majority of Brits, don’t
you think? Media coverage certainly compounds
the impression that 52% of Brits will wake up happy, and 48% will stay awake
worrying where it all went wrong.

However, if
the results are adjusted against the total number of registered voters, and not
just the 72.2% who turned out, the Bremain camp votes would translate to 35%
support, and the Brexit camp to 37% support.
The balance of 28% would be made up of those who either couldn’t vote
for one reason or another, idiots who thought the outcome was a foregone
conclusion so didn’t bother to vote, and those who couldn’t care less either
way.

Forget, for a
moment, all the arguments relating to not crying about the result if you have
not bothered to vote, and think about the bottom line. In the UK referendum on EU membership it
means that 38% of the voting population have decided the fate of the other
62%. Looking at it this way, is it
really a victory for democracy or does the result merely highlight that
democracy is not working quite as well as we think it is, or as was intended?

In the same vein,
in South Africa we have seen dramatic declines in terms of both registered
voter turnout and, in particular, the percentage turnout based on the voting
age population (VAP) which includes eligible, but as yet unregistered
voters.

In the first
democratic national election in 1994, registered voter turnout was close to
87%, with a voting age population turnout of 85.5%, which are very good numbers
indeed.

20 years later
in the 2014 national election, registered voter turnout had declined to 73.5%,
but of more concern is that it appears only 54% of the voting age population had
bothered to register and vote.[1]

So while the
ANC’s 62.15% share of the votes cast in 2014 sounds impressive, once you
realise that this translates into a mere 34% of the voting age population, it becomes another question mark over
democracy as practised today. The situation is even worse when it comes to our
Local Government elections where there are typically lower voter turnouts than
for National elections.

Such numbers
beg the question as to why so many people have apparently turned their backs on
this hard won privilege. Is it general voter apathy that has befallen the
world, in which case should voting be made compulsory to ensure that people
fulfil their democratic obligation?

The
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance[2]
has this to say about compulsory voting:

Advocates of
compulsory voting argue that decisions made by democratically elected governments
are more legitimate when higher proportions of the population participate. If
democracy is government by the people, presumably this includes all people, so
it is every citizen's responsibility to elect their representatives.

The leading
argument against compulsory voting is that it is not consistent with the
freedom associated with democracy. Voting is not an intrinsic obligation and enforcement
would be an infringement of the citizens' freedoms associated with democracy.
Furthermore, is a government really more legitimate if the high turnout is
forced on unwilling voters?

Surely, our
history dictates that voting should be an obligation - to serve the memory of
the many who fought so hard, and died, to earn full democratic rights for the
majority of people?

Two countries
that are particularly admired by South Africans, Australia and Singapore, have
compulsory voting. Australia will impose fines of $20 for a first offense, and
$50 for subsequent offences, while Singapore removes non-voters from the
electoral register until they apply for re-registration. Both countries wave
the penalties if non-voters have good reasons for not voting. As monetary penalties will not work in South
Africa, removal from the electoral register is a more manageable solution.

Then again, is
compulsory voting the answer, or is there a deeper seated problem with our political
system that has caused voter apathy?

In our case, the answer to
that rhetorical question lies in our much vaunted Constitution which entrenches
our right to vote, but not to choose who stands for election. Candidate selection, more precisely defined
as cadre deployment, is considered to be the divine right of political parties
and their leaders. In effect, democracy,
which should be a bottom-up system, has been cunningly morphed into a top-down
system whereby politicians and not the people own our so-called democracy.

The state has
most certainly been captured, not by commercial interests, but by unaccountable
and greedy politicians who have created the environment where opportunists such
as the Gupta family can thrive.

It is a great
shame that the Local Government electoral system has not already been changed. Perhaps
the tragic events in Vuyani and Tshwane could have been avoided. As it is, for
the next 5 years, we will not only continue to pay at least twice as many
pointless politicians than are needed to run a municipality, but the majority of
us will suffer from decreasing levels of service delivery at a disproportionately
higher cost. More fuel for the flames of service delivery protests.

One certainty
is that before 2019 we must force electoral system changes which will reinvigorate
our enthusiasm for democracy. Either we do that, or we may face consequences of
a somewhat more “revolutionary” nature.

As for the
Brexit result, it will be interesting to see the outcome of a 2nd
referendum, if there is one. But even if the result stands, they can still take
pride in their culture of accepting culpability, unlike our local leaders who
think it is their duty to keep attorneys and advocates in full employment in
order to avoid same.

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About Me

After retiring early, I became involved with the local ratepayers association. This is where I gained first-hand experience of the damage that can be done by proportional representation politicians at local government level. I have become increasingly frustrated with the widening disconnection between party-dominated politicians and the people they (mis)represent.